Consanguinem Conundrum

On the other hand - who ever knows? This beauty is a 'jack' with no drip tips but heavenly circular leaves, a smaller and more compact form with a slouchier posture. It appears moodier because of its deeper, more iridescent color. Because it flowered later, I took an-eve-more-than usual interest in the info on its marker and was hardly prepared for the surprising news that it also came to me as Arisaema consanguinem but from the Lazy S'S Farm Nursery (http://www.lazyssfarm.com/) in Barboursville, Virginia. I have been waiting two years for it to come to life. It is the cultivar 'Silver Center' though why it is named so is not apparent to me. But anyway they are all marvelous and a garden can never have too many jacks - no matter what they are called.

Astounding Garden Tip - Astonishing Arisaema

In the July issue of Dirtier you saw the fantastic hooded spathe or flower,if you will of the glorious Jack-in-the-Pulpit Arisaema consanguinem with its dramatic drip tips and matching lickety-lick tongue. Now feast your eyes on the seed pod which has appeared in all its glory only one month later. one more reason to get on the Big Dipper Farm waiting list (http://www.bigdipperfarm.com/).

The Simplest Is Often The Best

At Longhouse Reserve in East Hampton, in an endeavor to show off the beauty of the place and keep instep with the rhythm of the times, it was decided to keep the decor of the annual Summer Benefit to the barest minimum. We requested that everyone wrap themselves in ikats, batiks and silks and hoisted Chinatown-priced colored paper parasols on various heights of poles cut from the grand stands of bamboo that populate Longhouse. It was absolutely divine -- Bill Cunningham ran more than 20 pictures in the NY Times and everyone raved like never before. Next years' Longhouse Benefit is July 17th. mark your 2010 calendar now.

The Sought After White Garden

Feast your eyes on this carpet of white.



Feebly following in the footsteps of my favorite Vita and her deified white garden at Sissinghurst, one of my first stabs at gardening was a plodding silly attempt at a glowing white garden resembling hers and using obvious white flowering plants (even annuals). Having learned that the best white gardens are made up of whitened leaves, marginated plants, pale barks and every other sort of whiteness including fallen petals - it's now clear that white flowers are merely the accent, not the point. Read more in my latest dirt column in the August issue of Hampton's Cottages and Gardens (http://www.hc&g.com/).

People Are Talking

The Best @ Dianne B (http://www.diannebbest.com/) seems to be a huge hit with the well-read http://www.examiner.com/. An enthusiastic California writer, who goes by the delightful moniker Daffodil Planter, has a terrific blog that finds essence as well as humor in gardening topics:



Gardening 101: Dianne Benson on the Best Garden Tools & Clothes

by the Daffodil Planter



Do you want the best tools to make you a better gardener. Do you want to look chic while digging. Famed garden author and fashion designer Dianne Benson has that nailed. She offers the Ten Garden Essentials for all gardeners. What are the must-have for the beginning gardener, and the specialist tools for the advanced gardener? Find out in this interview with Dianne Benson from her country home in the Hamptons on Long Island. Read more at http://www.daffodilplanter.blogspot.com/

The Bounty of Summer

If I were in the business of selling plants instead of shovels and tool belts, then foremost among my Ten Best would be those that multiply like crazy: Petasites Asarum europaeum and Tetrapanax - the incredulous Japanese Rice Paper Plant.

My first plant came from the Plant Delights nursery (www.plantdelights.com), though they mysteriously do not seem to sell it any longer, and was touted, i believe, as not being reliably hardy in Zone 7. Well they were dead wrong --not only has it thrived and become a garden boon -- completely filling in where the various iris and spring things have dwindled away. With gorgeous celadon/blue/dusty green fan like leaves, it rises to three feet seemingly from out of nowhere, each leaf pleats open in a unique accordion style. So as i do not have the stamina nor the facility to dig or keep supplies of dirt and labels, nor ship plants, i sadly cannot sell you one. But if you can arrange to be at my garden for a tour, I am known to be very generous with those visitors who really seem passionate. Stay tuned to this blog for the 2010 Garden Conservancy Open Dates or check their web site (www.gardenconservancy.org)

Retraction

Impatiens morsei 'Velvetia' -- Amazing......

I do not hate all Impatiens. After so many years of reviling Impatiens -- relegating them to the trash heap of ubiquitous gardening commonality --I have found that there is one that is not only acceptable, it is absolutely gorgeous -- Not only does it have sinuous velvety green ovate leaves with a pronounced pink stripey vein right down the middle, it has an extraordinary spotted flower that bounces from a wiry stem and looks all the world like a provocative lady slipper orchid, only sexier. I bought it in East Hampton at Jason Speilberg's, but it's from the great grower Dennis Schrader of Hot Plants for Cool Climates fame